


back when we were younger

by everyshootingstar



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: M/M, Soulmate AU, tumblr ask reply
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-04
Updated: 2020-07-04
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:00:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25061269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/everyshootingstar/pseuds/everyshootingstar
Summary: The story of soulmarks, feeling half-complete and finding your true love in the chaos of the universe.
Relationships: Michael Guerin/Alex Manes
Comments: 6
Kudos: 92





	back when we were younger

**Author's Note:**

> I got an ask with one of the soulmate prompts; 50. you have your soulmates fingerprints somewhere on your body. 
> 
> I wrote this on the day I legit got engaged so the contents of the fic are very apt haha. 
> 
> title is from kevin mchale's younger which is a bop
> 
> If you wanna send me a fic request over on tumblr (esp for the soulmate prompts) hmu! or leave a comment here haha. 
> 
> [here's the tumblr version in case you wanna reblog](https://alienhaus.tumblr.com/post/622140926140334080/hi-for-the-soulmates-au-thing-i-think-killems-w)

All things considered, Alex supposes he was lucky his soulmark wasn’t as large as Liz’s, or even Maria’s (five fingerprints, stretched out naturally as if someone was resting their hand just below her collarbone for Liz and four on the front of Maria’s arm, as if her soulmate had grabbed her to stop her from walking away). 

The half of a thumbprint above the knuckle of his ring finger on his left hand and the quarter of a fingerprint on the underside. Something easy to cover on the days that made him sick just looking at it. 

“It’s romantic,” Liz had said, examining the prints, “Obviously someone’s going to love you very much at some point in the future." 

Alex had laughed and diverted the attention from his own unfinished mark to something else, and while Liz looked like she wanted to keep going, she stopped and accepted his change of subject. 

And then, he met Michael Guerin. 

Michael who made everything feel new and fresh, who didn’t have a soulmark (even hidden under his clothes, the first time they’d made love, he’d checked thoroughly, learning everything he could about Michael’s body). 

It didn’t bother him, and Alex’s unfinished mark didn’t bother Michael, Michael who’d just press a kiss to it when they were sitting in the back of his truck watching the stars as he rubbed warmth back into his cold hands. 

In a way, Alex felt complete, even though he knew Michael wasn’t his, it was fine, because they had this and Alex was content. 

Until Jesse Manes happened. 

And suddenly, Alex knew he needed to get away, even though he wanted to stay, to be with Michael, he couldn’t. 

He couldn’t protect him. Not like this. Not with a broken soulmark, not with the emotional attachment, the pain he felt every time he closed his eyes and Michael’s face painted in agony flashed before his eyes. 

So he left, joined the Air Force and bottled up the resentful feelings when Michael never came to see him off. (It was fair, he was leaving and Michael didn’t have to put himself through even more pain and heartbreak.) 

Ten years pass like sand and by the time he steps back onto Roswell, he hopes Michael isn’t there anymore. 

Hopes he’s found himself somewhere out in Santa Fe or anywhere other than here. 

Except he hasn’t, and suddenly Alex feels seventeen again. 

He calls him Guerin again, tries to keep his distance, tries everything he can to not give into the pull of him—except, he can’t and he rotates closer to him, always pulled into his orbit, falling back into what they had when they were seventeen. 

Except they’re not seventeen anymore and Alex can’t do that and even if Michael accuses him of walking away, of not loving him, he won’t break, because he can’t let his dad get Michael or Max or Isobel because now that he knows, knows his family’s legacy, he can’t stand by and watch his dad, his brother destroy anymore. 

(Finding out that Michael was an alien shed light on him not having a soulmark, because neither did Isobel or Max. Soulmates existed for them, just not in the same way as humans.) 

There’s a period that Alex doesn’t like to think about, where Maria and Michael dated, where he had gone to Forrest who was nice but never gave him the feeling of being complete that Michael did, and while he tried to love Forrest, he knew he couldn’t. 

Their breakup was amicable, and shortly after, Forrest found his soulmate, someone who’d left the five perfect fingerprints around his upper arm, and Alex was happy for him. 

Life went back to a sort of normal after that until one day Michael invited him to the Crashdown, called it a date and Alex felt hope again, felt something bloom in his chest when he saw Michael, sitting nervously in a booth, waiting for him. 

The feeling of being complete had come back, settled into his chest, snug against his heart and Alex rode on that feeling, ignored every voice in his head telling him not to get too close—Project Shepard would always be around, but Alex knew he could protect Michael, they could protect each other. 

If Michael could still love him after the shed, after leaving him behind for war, after what his ancestors had orchestrated against his people, then, broken soulmark or no, nothing could stop them, not even the possibility of not being soulmates. 

Life though, has a way of taking you by surprise, and one day, six months into their new relationship, Michael proposes, drops down onto one knee and pulls out a ring, his curls wild around his face and eyes shining. 

His chest feels tight and he’s barely able to get the words out as he accepts, as he pulls Michael up and into a kiss, right in the middle of the Pony, around all of their friends, their family. 

(And when Michael slips the ring onto his finger, he sucks in a startled breath, a rush of adrenaline spiking his system as Michael’s thumb fits perfectly against the half thumbprint on his finger. 

And beneath the open vee of Michael’s shirt, Alex watches as an array of color blooms across his skin, a shimmery partial thumbprint peeking out through the buttonhole of his shirt. 

"Michael,” he whispers, staring into the eyes of the man he’s loved for over ten years, feeling an unknown emotion well in his chest just beneath his ribs, but it’s pleasant and light and makes him feel jittery. 

“I know darlin’,” Michael whispers as he cups his face with his free hand and pulls him into a kiss, sweet and slow and all encompassing.)


End file.
